Now there's your real pollution, Sheila, too blasted many people per million are professional busybodies and dogooders who believe everything tastes better if they piddle in it! -- L. Neil Smith

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

I promised more on the chiropractor

Now it's time to deliver.

If you missed it earlier, I've started going to a chiropractor for problems with my back. Well, I've been going for a couple of weeks, and I thought I'd let the world (at least, the little part that stops by here) know "What chiropractic has done for me".

I went into this with a lot of skepticism. I figured this was somewhere in the neighborhood of a backrub, and I had a self-diagnosed nerve impingement--my left leg was hurting down to my calf, burning sensations, the whole business. But since I wasn't getting much help from my MD, Something Had To Be Done.

So on the advice of a couple of co-workers, I went to their chiro. Very nice guy, took his time, took some x-rays, thoroughly explain his take on the situation in my lower back. If I understand this correctly, in layman's terms I have a collapsed joint (vertebrae located at hip level--S1 maybe?) that is impinging a nerve. Might be congenital, aggravated by 2 major and several minor injuries over the years.

So we start treatment--ultrasound to help the inflammation around the nerve, spinal adjustments to get the thing back where it belongs.

I didn't know your back could crack in that many places.

At any rate, my leg stopped hurting after a few adjustments. There is some pain in the back, but that is residual, and will soon start lessening, so sayeth the chiro.

The chiro also tells me that my back will never be as good as it was before this, but I should easily be 80-90+%. Compared to laying flat on my back hurting, I guess that isn't so bad. Of course, I'm going to have to be serious about stretching and exercise, listen to my body ("A 15 minute break at the right time can save you a visit to me."), loose some weight, modify some behaviors, adjust my seating position and so on. All things I should have done anyway or that are minor changes.

He also says I may need to pay him a visit every so often, perhaps once every month or three, for some "preventive maintenance". Fine with me; it beats being out of work. Cheaper, too.

I guess the bottom line is that chiropratic seems to have done me some good. I'm surprised, but happy to be surprised.